Roddick v Ljubicic

Poor Roddick. His ground game has no penetration, he merely stands there and rallies and generally just hopes the other guy misses.
And when he comes up against an opponent with a serve as good as his he's clueless.
Serve and volley on the first point of a tiebreak against a guy with the quality of Lujbicic's passing game?
Way to go Andy.
I know the surface at IW is slow but Lujbicic was able to hit some high quality winners and not just rally, where was Roddick in that department?
Roddick had a first rate forehand once, where is it?
It's been buried under an avalanche of topspin and caution.

Poor Roddick. His ground game has no penetration, he merely stands there and rallies and generally just hopes the other guy misses.
And when he comes up against an opponent with a serve as good as his he's clueless.
Serve and volley on the first point of a tiebreak against a guy with the quality of Lujbicic's passing game?
Way to go Andy.
I know the surface at IW is slow but Lujbicic was able to hit some high quality winners and not just rally, where was Roddick in that department?
Roddick had a first rate forehand once, where is it?
It's been buried under an avalanche of topspin and caution.

Yeh, what is this crap about Roddick's "huge forehand". I've got a bigger forehand than him. As you said, it doesn't penetrate the court at all and it looks like he's really trying to hammer it but it isn't powerful. So what is all the fuss about??

"The depressing thing about tennis is that no matter how good I get, Iíll never be as good as a wall."

"Whoever said, ĎItís not whether you win or lose that counts,í probably lost."

He's most #6, based on what analysis I've read, because of his high first serve percentage in.
I've read an analysis of his serve, and its mostly his explosive leg strength and shoulder flexibility that have gotten him that far.
Here is a link : http://www.active.com/tennis/Article...dy-roddick.htm

Do you consider his shoulder flexibility really flexible?
I think I can do that, and I asked my science teacher-pretty athletic guy, and he could do that too..
I'm not really sure what they mean by that.

He's most #6, based on what analysis I've read, because of his high first serve percentage in.
I've read an analysis of his serve, and its mostly his explosive leg strength and shoulder flexibility that have gotten him that far.
Here is a link : http://www.active.com/tennis/Article...dy-roddick.htm

Do you consider his shoulder flexibility really flexible?
I think I can do that, and I asked my science teacher-pretty athletic guy, and he could do that too..
I'm not really sure what they mean by that.

Roddick has a rare combination in his serve - flexibility/agility and strength. I bet I have close to the same stregth of Roddick but in the flexibility department, he leaves me behind.

Originally Posted by ilendl

He's actually the world no.8.

And he won't rise any higher unless he fixes his forehand.

It's a bit simplistic to say "he is still the world number six - nothing wrong with that".

There's quite a bit wrong with his game, that's why, despite having one of the best serves in tennis, he's now No.8, (down from No.1 in 2003).

Or you could look at it like this: Despite Roddick's weak forehand and average backhand, he has managed to reach number 1 in the world and stay in the top ten for 6+ years.

How about this for some perspective - grab a tape of when he was No.1 and look at his forehand - then look at it now - no comparison.
The commentators at IW were saying exactly that.
Look, why would I bother - there's clearly not a lot of real tennis knowledge here - just simplistic platitudes.
Do you think Roddick wants another Slam? The answer clearly is "yes".
Do you think he can win one with the ground game he has? The answer clearly is "no".

I'll give you a little more perspective - Roddick played a 31 year old guy (Ljubicic) who'd had a tough three setter against Rafa and what did he do?
He rallied with him all day long - he didn't try to make him move out of his comfort zone, or scramble - he hit it straight back to him time and time again with loopy, innocuous forehands and waited for Lujbicic to take the initiative.
He asked no questions of Lubo's ground game whatsoever.
Result: Roddick lost.
There's some perspective for you.
As I said why do I bother? I won't again.
And please don't reply to this - it won't get us anywhere.
And as I said he's No.8 (not No.6) and he's trending down.